Animal Logic’s Truant Pictures Launches Australian Screenplay Competition

Truant Pictures, based in Sydney and Los Angeles, has launched its first Australian focused screenplay competition, committed to uncovering the next great horror, science fiction and thriller screenwriters, with a pool of prizes and initiatives to help support emerging writers’ careers.

Australian writers have the opportunity to win a significant cash prize and receive professional feedback from industry professionals with international influence. The winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize, a hot desk for one week at Truant Pictures’ office in Sydney, and mentorship from Truant’s Development & Production Executives Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt.

Two further finalists will receive $1,000 cash each, and all three writers will be read and noted by one of the Industry Insider judges Stuart Beattie (‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl’, ‘Collateral’, ‘I, Frankenstein’), Yolanda Ramke (‘Cargo’) or Zak Hilditch (‘1922’, ‘These Final Hours’), along with written feedback from ex-pat Australian script consultant Tim Schildberger, who now works in Los Angeles.

The competition is open to any writer who is a current Australian citizen or permanent resident and has earned no more than $30,000 from fiction screenwriting in the last 12 months. Only feature film scripts in the genre of horror, science fiction and/or thriller (or any sub-genre thereof) are eligible.

“We’re looking for compelling stories, unique voices and writers who exhibit a strong command of their craft, whether they’re ‘in the system’ or have never been read,” said Greg Schmidt.

“Truant Pictures was created with a vision to collaborate with Australian filmmakers to produce compelling and entertaining stories with universal audience appeal. We’re committed to discovering and nurturing the next wave of Aussie genre talent and are excited to be launching our first public initiative focused on writers,” Toby Nalbandian said. Entries for the Truant Screenplay Competition are open from 1 July to 2 September, and winners will be announced in November 2019.

All reading and judging will be done in collaboration with LiveRead/LA – a Los Angeles based organisation dedicated to helping writers improve their skills. Entrants are invited to apply HERE.    www.truantpictures.com